jessica cdp powerpoint

1.1 MB·

by  Darnell Howard

Montana Early Recovery
Workshop: What we are
learning and What comes
next
Jessica Stewart-Kuntz
Director of Operations and Grants, Montana Community Foundation
December 7, 2017
Montana’s 2017 Wildfire Season
• One of the worst wildfire seasons on record
• The worst smoke on record
• One of the longest wildfire seasons on record
• The worst drought on record
• 1.25 million acres burned
• Two lives lost
• Volunteer fire departments make up more
than 90% of fire departments in our state.
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Lolo Peak Fire &
Caribou Fire
.
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Rice Ridge Fire &
Lodge Pole Fire
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Montana Early Recovery Workshop
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Challenges
• People not being prepared (what to do, decision making, response, public
education)
• There isn’t a “sand box” of organizations and entities involved in fires
• If you don’t see it, smell it, feel it, it doesn’t exist or matter = loss of momentum
• “Wildfires are part of summer”
• Lack of volunteers
• Protocols are not widely understood
• Weeds/weed control
• Mutual aid requests
• Potential for increased depression and suicide
• Improved communication through long disaster events (example: between fire
departments and county agencies
• Some communities don’t know if they have a disaster plan or what it is
• Relationships and communication between agencies and organizations needs to
be stronger (who is doing what and how are they responding)
• Improved communication (too many resource lists)
• Under-resourced county emergency management
• Need for a common operating picture 7
Opportunities
• Increased preparedness and education
• So many organizations involved in response and
recovery
• More volunteers
• Communication network established
• Building relationships proactively (between fire
departments and residents and county agencies)
• Beginning to put protocols in place (preplan and train
together)
• Local Emergency Planning Committees
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“Aha” Moments
• We need volunteer fire crews
• We need younger volunteers
• We need a directory of resources that
includes every level of government and
every type of resource (who is involved,
what do they do and where do they do it,
and what resources do they have
available to help)
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What do you want to know more
about?
• Air quality building standards for new school
construction
• Tools and a toolkit for disaster response
• Community plan/social media plan for disaster
• Understanding of what other communities have
done that works in disaster
• What resources are available and how are they
accessed?
• Potential Referral Network for resources during
disaster
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